Educational Habitus and Students' Experiences of the Transition to Secondary Education

Drawing on a qualitative longitudinal Study of grade 4 to 7 students, this article examines students' experiences of the transition from elementary to secondary education. The analysis focuses on five contrasting schools: an "exclusive," highly selective Gymnasium, a "normal" urban Gymnasium, a comprehensive school, a Sekundarschule, and a Hauptschule. Surprisingly, reconstruction of the students' individual orienting frameworks reveals that even 10-year-olds already show four clearly delineated habitus configurations: the habitus of educational excellence and distinction, the habitus of educational aspiration (three variants), the habitus of educational conformity and necessity, and finally the habitus of educational alienation (three variants). The data show, first, that selection and anticipation, the experience of transition and arrival, and potential opportunities and risks in the new schools can be properly understood only in the overall context of these forms of habitus and their fit with the school attended. Second, they show that the students' forms of habit-Lis - as temporary as they may be - have independent significance for the transition to secondary education.